Mary Poppins @ Norwich Theatre Royal

When the Mary Poppins books, written by the formidable P.L. Travers were made into a Disney film, she had no problems verbalising her disdain for it – though she loved Julie Andrews. Since then iconic producer Cameron Macintosh (in collaboration with Disney) was entrusted to make a musical version of her work. And it really is a fantastic re-imagining of her books as well as aspects of the film.

The magical English nanny Mary Poppins played by Zizi Strallen flies into Cherry Tree Lane with a pop of confetti and a flash of lights. And Poppins has just one thing on her mind, teaching the children Michael, played by Jabez Cheeseman, and Jane played by Georgie Hill, how to be good and compassionate, something that eventually permeates through the family.

The score is one of the most memorable aspects of this story: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Jolly Holiday and Let’s Go Fly a Kite, are fantastic uplifting tunes that were produced by the enigmatic Sherman Brothers, while for this production additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe fit in seamlessly. But what is also obviously great about the musical is the wonderful pairings of characters. George and Winifred Banks, Michael and Jane, Bert and Mary Poppins, and what we see very little of in the film but is quite prominent in the show is the slapstick relationship between cook Mrs Brill (Wendy Ferguson) and the butler/footman Robertson Ay (Blair Anderson). In fact they get one of the loudest applauses at the end of the show, while the entire cast get an almost raucous standing ovation.

In one of my favourite scenes, which incidentally wasn’t in the film, the cook storms out of the kitchen divaishly distraught at her slave-like conditions. The children are left to fend for themselves and decide to help her by making the icing for a cake. Hilarious chaos ensues as Robertson Ay stumbles and falls onto the kitchen table, snaps it in half then lands standing upright against the dresser. And cue Mary Poppins who comes in to sing a Spoonful of Sugar i.e. a sip of rum punch. Poppins magically clears up the mess and a cake with icing mysteriously springs up.

This scene helps cement the roles of the staff in the show, while also being another indicator of inequality, good and bad, right and wrong - the themes that are so prominent in whichever version of Mary Poppins you're familiar with. It's not so much that Mrs Brill and Robertson Ay are hard done by; it's more that there is staff, there is a nanny and the mum is forced to live the life that is allocated to her by being the wife of Mr Banks. She is supposed to volunteer, invite strangers who are prominent in the community to afternoon tea, which she humorously sings that she’s not very good at with her operatic voice. Mary Poppins is set in the Edwardian age of 1910, so being anything but the dutiful housewife would have been strange. Though Mrs Banks used to be an actress, gasp, and she is a member of the suffragette movement.

When Mary Poppins urges the children to see the magic in the park they are bored with, we jump with them into a magical world imbued with eye-popping colours and characters, here Greek statues comes to life, one of which Neleus is missing his father Poseidon god of the sea, a moral for little Michael to value having his father around. What’s interesting about the scene, however, are the literary references that were eliminated from the film and instead replaced by dancing penguins. Then there are the affects: Mary Poppins can fly and she has a carpet bag where everything including the coat stand appear from, and Bert even pulls out a bunch of flowers from a painting to give to his ‘love’ Mary Poppins. These magical elements are brilliantly engineered.

The whole production is utterly joyful, from the acting, to exuberant colours utilised not just in the set but with the lighting, too, and interspersed with darkness to depict internal woe and bleak London in the early 20th century. The family home opens up like a doll’s house on stage, and everything is intricately illustrated, from the rooms in the house, to the bank of England (where Mr Banks works), and the London rooftops – which is the setting for one of the most amazing dance scenes in the musical. Mary Poppins, Bert, the children and a dozen or so chimney sweepers tap and pirouette to Step In Time - a testament to Matthew Bourne’s wonderful choreography. By the end of the evening, my husband and I were so uplifted, we left Norwich Theatre Royal believing ‘anything is possible’ and singing Let’s Go Fly a Kite all the way home.